DayOne's Reviews
Kiln is, more than anything, a fun, frenetic, and maybe a too chaotic work-in-progress. With something in the spirit of old Xbox Live Arcade titles there is a real ‘hidden gem’ feel that harkens back to an older style of Double Fine titles, seen through a multiplayer lens.
Tides of Tomorrow does a lot of really cool things, and the narrative is the star of the show. I have to admit, in the early hours I wasn’t massively engaged, but by the mid-way point I began to care for several of the main characters, and did want to see just what happens to this broken world, and whether it can be saved.
Lord of Hatred is an excellent expansion, bringing Diablo IV ever closer to that 'Reaper of Souls' moment that fans have been waiting for. An emotionally heavy story, new endgame systems, and two solid new classes should have fans of the series enthralled.
SIGONO’s newest adventure tells the story of environmental struggles that naturally become personal. After what seems a long life yet lived and having nothing to show for it, you’re invited to look back again and understand. Sometimes they’re happy thoughts. Sometimes, it hurts so much you’ll want to crawl up in a hole and die. Sometimes, retrospection gets all too real. OPUS: Prism Peak’s answer to this middle-aged conundrum is to look back, walk straight forward, and be nicer to yourself. It couldn’t have worded it in a nicer, more beautiful message.
Vampire Crawlers is one of the best roguelike deck-builders on the market right now. It’s fast, charming, addictive and tremendously well-crafted. Poncle has done it again.
A significant upgrade to the first game in almost every single way, Hades II takes the already really high bar and brings it even further up. Fifty hours in and I still can’t seem to put the game down. Hades II is an absolute must-play for pretty much everyone, fans of the genre or not. Death to Chronos, again and again.
With weighty platforming and crunchy, satisfying combat, this is a world full of heart and incredible detail presented with an eye-catching art style. It’s backed up by a punchy soundtrack that elevates every pixel on display. REPLACED oozes style and imagination, and it’s almost everything I wanted it to be.
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire was worth the wait. The team at Fumi Games has matched their fantastic artwork with solid gameplay, great writing, and fantastic audio. Shooter fans are eating Gouda with this one
PRAGMATA is a fantastic video game. Solid gunplay, excellent variety in its hacking, incredible visuals, and an enjoyable story work together to create what I hope is a new IP that we’ll see a lot more of in the future.
Samson: A Tyndalston Story fails to make the most of its setup. A mix of poor combat and repetition pulls down what could have been an interesting tale of redemption and revenge.
People of Note tries to do a lot – a video game-musical, with turn based combat, a world of musical references and plenty of dungeons and puzzles. Some of that is pretty great. Alas, the gameplay felt to me like a track stuck on repeat, and the story didn’t quite have enough going for it to be truly worth the journey. This is one album I won’t be playing again any time soon.
Full of charm and humour, Darwin’s Paradox plays out somewhat like an interactive Pixar film. It certainly looks the part, thanks to some gorgeous artwork and animation that adds a layer of polish and charm to the game that just about camouflages some of the its weaker design elements. Fans of the genre will want to get ‘kraken’ with this one.
Make no mistake, Super Meat Boy 3D is as pure a punishing speedrunning platformer as you'll get, just like it's predecessors. It's fast, tight, infuriating, hilarious, bloody and just outright white-knuckle fun. But yeah, f**k this game right off as well.
Grime II is a phenomenal video game. Every aspect of it is a huge improvement over the original. If you have some patience and love a good Metroidvania, Grime II is the best one I have played since the Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. I cannot recommend it enough.
The golden era of track-based arcade racers may be behind us, but that didn’t stop Milestone from developing a marvellous one in this day and age. This reboot of Screamer has all the core elements of a modern classic: a meaty single player campaign with a rich story, a fantastic sense of style, a snappy arcade-style driving model with a high skill ceiling, and plenty of content to enjoy in both local and online play. Screamer is bold, exciting, but most importantly, incredibly fun, and it may just be one of the finest arcade racers in years. If you miss the good old days of fantastic arcade racers with personality, do yourself a favour and buy Screamer.
A mediocre plot and bland writing can't hold back one of the most ambitious games ever made. Stunning graphics, great gameplay, and excellent music carry you through hundreds of hours of systems-based fun. It somehow lives up to all the hype, with some rough edges in tow.
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun’s Nintendo Switch 2 port is an excellent (if expensive) way to experience this wonderful title. Mimimi Games was one of the best, and Shadow Tactics was where they started to shine. At $40 MSRP for the base game and $20 for Aiko’s Choice, it isn’t cheap, but it is fantastic.
Is Starship Troopers: Ultimate Bug War! a stellar shooter? Not really. In fact, it doesn’t even touch the heights of Auroch Digital‘s own Boltgun. But this Starship Troopers tie-in is respectful to the source material, and the giant battles against bugs with retro shooter vibes is both fun and nostalgic. Not a ton of depth or variety to boot, and the lack of any form of multiplayer is a missed opportunity, but this all-out war between humans and bugs can be quite a riot at times.
Marathon is a hugely inconsistent game. Some marvelous vistas and stylistic choices, yet the world feels void of interesting events and feels small, with only a few small, static and repetitive maps. Some great shooting is accompanied by a crazy low TTK that encourages playing as passively as possible.
Repetition is in FATAL FRAME II’s nature and though I find more comfort from the horrors of Minakami Village behind the camera lens, it’s hard to deny that the game would be complete without its gorgeous setting and haunting narrative. Take a snapshot and hope you don’t miss. ∎